An Affordable Pistol Sight Adjustment Tool

I ran into this sight adjustment tool right here on GunsAmerica and requested one for review. It works great and is a really nice little piece of American ingenuity.

I set the tool up in my Midway workstation with this Colt 1911 slide, but it doesn’t need a holder and could be done at the range.

The three aluminum blocks act as a jig to hold the clamping tension. I used a leather strip to protect the finish of the gun, but cleaning patches would work as well. You can remove the bottom metal block to work on adjustable front sights.

Once you have the slide locked in, you snug the blade up next to the sight that needs to be moved and use a 3/4” wrench to push it those small increments to get the gun to shoot to point of aim.

See a need, fill a need. That’s the foundation of American ingenuity. While browsing through new ads coming onto GunsAmerica a couple of weeks ago, I happened upon a nifty homemade tool for adjusting the rear sight on a pistol. We’ve all gotten guns that came from the factory not shooting to point of aim, and while it isn’t an expensive gunsmith visit, it’s still a gunsmith visit. I’d rather have a tool I can bring to the range and adjust it myself, and also have to help others who I see dealing with the same issue.

I said to myself, this guy must be copying someone out there who is making these things, but after checking both Midway and Brownells, searching for “adjustment tool,” I discovered that this is not the case. There are some proprietary sight adjustment tools out there from Sig and H&K (at three times plus the cost of this tool), but for the most part there was nothing. I swear I remember someone at the range at some point with something like this, but maybe he had just made it himself. From what I can tell, this is a novel product.

So I decided to ask to review one. And as I thought initially, it is more than nifty; the design is inspired. It is all based around a box that the inventor created with a bender. The box is welded together and drilled to accommodate the adjustment bolts. Rather than thread the box, he welded on a nut. Another nut traverses the top of the box with the sight adjustment blade welded to it.

To adjust the rear sight on your 1911, or other pistol slide that does not have a safety on the slide, you lock the slide in the jig of aluminum blocks (line them with a strip of leather or cleaning patches if you don’t want to risk your finish), and put a 3/4” wrench on the bolt on the side of the box. When you turn the bolt, the nut and blade traverse sideways, moving your sight to the right or left.

The device also works on adjustable front sights. A Phillips head screw holds the bottom jig block and is easily removed. You can also adjust the sights on slides with safeties or decockers built-in; you just have to remove the ears first.

In my pictures here you’ll see that I set the device up in my Midway workstation, but it really isn’t necessary. This is a tool you can carry in your range pack with a 3/4” wrench and have the ability to adjust a sight whenever the need arises.

How many times have we all been shooting next to a newbie whose gun came from the factory not shooting to point of aim? You always want to help them but all you can usually do is send them to a gunsmith. This tool is effortless and it really works.

To contact the maker or to buy one, please use his GunsAmerica ad. We’re not going to post his name and address in this article/review for privacy reasons.

I bought one of these sight tools about three years ago for tinkering with my Glocks. It has worked without fail.
Being the tinkerer that I am, I wanted a bit more of a platform on which the slide rests. I tasked my brother the tool & die maker to make me a 4″ long aluminum base for some added stability. It works like a charm!

Just a comment on the sight tool. I found a universal sight tool with numerous blocks that can be interchanged depending on the pistol for a whopping $60.00 with tax. Looks almost like the one reviewed only it has several more blocks that can be interchanged. I can’t wait to get it in and put in in my range bag.

I have used the Glock sight tool in the past and it works fine for Glocks, but since I teach Texas Concealed Handgun classes I never know what type or manufacture of the pistols that students will bring that might need some adjustments.

I picked up a spiffy new S&W 1911SC enhanced yesterday and took it out to the range today. Shoots great with everything that I fed it. But I didn’t notice that she is shooting consistently left. I do have 3 other 1911s — no issues there — but I did have two other people shoot the gun to verify I wasn’t crazy.

I just found this great review and was looking at the two models available. Am considering getting the gunsmith kit version for $79.95. Looks like a really well-built tool and something I can use on many different pistols as well

Was wondering if there were any special considerations I needed to worry about with regards to the 1911SC. This is the commander-sized model with the scandium frame. It comes with tritium night sights. From a close inspection I can see that the front sight definitely appears to be positioned too far to the right (which would cause it to shoot to the left).

I make a Sight Pusher that is a step above most on the market, how do I advertise on your site? I love visiting your site and think the addition of my sight pusher would be a welcomed addition to such a high end site.

Ordered my tool a few days ago to adjust my sights on my Glock 26. Received today. Have to say – what an awesome piece of equipment! The sloped blade worked really well and the job was a doddle. This thing is bullet proof….seriously heavy gauge metal throughout, makes the standard Glock tool look like a (breakable) child’s toy.

Thanks so much for putting this out at this price – I’ll be recommending to all my friends. Just a suggestion for the future…what might be a nice idea would be to produce changeable custom bits to fit popular makes of sights, as you’ve pretty much done with the slope for the Glock here. Great stuff; keep up the good work!

I have found an adhesive-backed material suitable for use as anti-mar padding with this tool. Instead of a gun cleaning patch, I have attached the soft-side of a piece of Scotch 3M Reclosable Fastener (Mfg# RF7051). I simply pulled the backing off a piece of this velco-type tape, attached it to the surface of both clamp blocks, and used a boxcutting blade to trim away the excess material. Here is a link for the fastener material, however it can be easily obtained from places in your local area, like CVA, Walgreens, Costco, Sam’s Club, Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Office Max, Office Depot, etc.

Wow, easier than I expected! Installed Tru-glo night sights on an M&P Pro 5″ 9mm and the removal and installation went with out a hitch! Great little tool! I will be recommending to all my shooting buddies!

Please send me information about how to order. I’m a novice with online shopping and the ad advises me not to send money order or use pay pal. Would buy the product if I can figure out how to do it. Have you mailing address from verified address request.

I haven’t heard of anyone breaking the capsule (they have an aluminum cylinder around them), some people have filed the pusher blade at a 60 degree angle and others have used the tip of the blade on the sight itself.

Rick, send me an email with a picture of what you are describing to sighttool@cox.net and I will help you any way I can.

Just got one but can’t get it to work with Trijicon tritium night sights with the sloping sides which I am trying to remove. The sight-moving tip on the device will not hold onto the tiny base of the sight and wants to push on the sloping side. I’m afraid that will break the housing and crush the tritium capsule. Any suggestions?

George has a thought, I am trying to keep the price down and really don’t want to exclude some guns.

The Admin is right, I would go 2″ wide on the frame with 3/4″X 2″ blocks and a 1/2″ wide by 1/4″ deep U in the middle of each block.

I will continue to work on a solution for the slides with decockers and safeties.

One note: I would like to add, that some guns (Kimbers and XD’s to list a few) can be very hard to break loose.
Look for marks on the slide from where the sight was installed and remove the sight pushing towards the marks.
If you are not pushing in the right direction you will not get them to move.

I recommend soaking the sight base with penetrating oil and let it sit for a day on the tough ones.

There is no reason that has be a blade. If there were more bearing surface using a small block there would be be much less probability of marring the sight, and you could also try to superglue a small piece of leather or plastic to the sides of the block as well and see if it works. Easier to weld a block straight too. 😉

Great tool…. BUT….what about for applications that DO have a safety on the slide?….like the Walther PP/PPK series? I would think a simple modification of this nifty device….with a “relief cut-out” that avoids putting pressure on the safety lever…can somehow be done. Maybe a replacement “holder” block can be inserted with such a relief cut? Do THAT…and then you really have a versatile tool that can handle both the 1911 style slides and most DA-action auto’s too !

I’ve asked the developer to work up some jigs for slides with decockers and safeties. It would be easy to make them on a CNC but on a regular milling machine it might be a bit of a challenge. It may require a bigger unit overall to accommodate jigs with thick enough walls around the cutouts for the ears.

Hah, thought I recognized that. I picked one up from him a little bit back. Great little device and good communications for a minor issue I had. Glad I held out rather than spending much more on the more expensive tools.